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Letters to the editor (July 18)

Posted:
07/18/2013 01:00:00 AM MDT

Turning resources

over to government

The Silver Fire in the Gila National Forest began from a lightning strike, so the environmentalist can't go crazy blaming environmental damage on imperfect humans. An interesting letter to the editor recently gave a timeline for the fire suggesting that perhaps it could have been put out quickly when it first started. So, maybe imperfect humans, or rather imperfect policy, did turn what might have been a manageable issue into an environmental catastrophe.

Sierra County is rich in resources. We have the largest lake in New Mexico.

We have a huge wilderness area for our backyard. We have lots of space. But the reality is we are a welfare county. We have turned much of our resources over to big government. Our lake is run by N.M. State Parks, which siphons off a lot of the revenue generated here to sustain other parks and a large bureaucracy in Santa Fe. The U.S. Forest Service controls millions of acres.

It is my understanding that Sierra County receives compensation from the U.S. government for surrendering control to them. So instead of trying to utilize our resource of billions of trees for fuel and building materials, we rely on the U.S. Forest Service to "manage" it for us and now witness that mismanagement in the smoke we see and air we breathe. Finally, the Environmental Protection Agency and Santa Fe say they are going to make it painfully expensive for any city to have a landfill, so we have to adhere to their regional plan of transfer stations costing the citizens of Sierra County even more money.

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Our resources of space, forest, and water are fully controlled by the state and federal government. The smoke and ashes tell of something greater when the citizenry gives up its freedoms.

Mario diGesu Truth or Consequences

A recap of

summer scandals

There is no silly season this summer -- it's just continued scandal and blowhard time. We all know the latest blots on citizen privacy or lack thereof. A short recaps.

DoJ -- Its actions are shameful and unconstitutional. A fix and housecleaning is needed.

The IRS -- certainly off the wall and/or bad management at the very least. A fix and housecleaning here too. And:

Now NSA eavesdropping -- apparently legal. The Patriot Act, remember?

Disgusting then and coming home to roost with unintended consequences.

What's shameful is that the current administration has continued W's spying programs and is trying to justify indiscriminate information collection. At what point does information become a tool of repression? As Senators Tom Udall and Ron Wyden said "We disagree with the statement that the broad Patriot Act collection strikes the 'right balance' between protecting American security and protecting Americans' privacy. In our view it does not.'" Senators, make your position clear and much louder. State so and work to repeal the Patriot Act. Don't let those like Rep. Peter King steal the show. We don¹t arrest journalists for doing their jobs.

We shouldn't forget Ben Franklin's thoughts that apply to this mess: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." While he could not imagine today¹s technological power, he is still on target. Governments change; what is one party¹s security and not the erosion of freedom can become its obverse -- security of the state, not the people, and the killing of freedom.

In any case, if recent surveys are true, the security state is here and many Americans don't mind. Very sad...

Jerry Nachison Las Cruces

Town attorney takes

potshots at residents

According to your article on the recent meeting held to discuss crime in downtown Silver City, one of Town Attorney Robert Scavron's contributions to the discussion was saying that the community is apathetic, lacks courage and sense of community. He is further quoted as saying he's appalled at the things "you people" put up with.

I'm wondering if Mr. Scavron would be willing to expand on what it is he thinks we're tolerating that could be handled if we only had more courage and a greater sense of community. Assuming he's talking about crime, what is it he would have us do that we aren't doing?

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